the Mommy who stole Christmas

The kids have been bugging me about setting up Christmas since we landed in the driveway on Sunday. I've been putting them off until the house was clean again after unpacking from the trip. Yesterday I ran out of excuses, so we hauled the Christmas boxes out of the garage before going to bed. This morning, Lillian really wanted to decorate the Christmas tree. I got her settled in my room watching Playhouse Disney and brought the tree upstairs, opened it, and started to set it up. I had all the branches sorted and the center pole in place and was running lights up it to the top, also in place, when Lillian walked into the loft. I smiled at her, thinking how happy she should be to see me putting up the tree, instead she burst into hysterical screams and collapsed on the floor in tears.

I rushed over to see what had happened. I was sure she had stepped on a tack or something equally horrible. "What's wrong?" I asked.

Her answer had me in hysterics, too, the laughter kind. Over and over again, she repeated, "You cut the branches off! You cut the branches off! You ruined Christmas! It's ruined!"

Of course, my laughter only made things worse. She jumped up and yelled it at me a few more times, then she grabbed my hand and dragged me into her room to point to her little fiber optic table-top Christmas tree that we set up on Sunday and declared, "That is what it's SUPPOSED to look like!"

I finally convinced her that I was sorry for ruining Christmas and I would be able to fix it and settled her down to watch me finish setting it up while she drew pictures for me to show me exactly how a Christmas Tree is supposed to look like.

I love having a four year old. They are great!